The Minnetonka City Council supports studying the addition of a Southwest Light Rail Station south of Smetana Road along Feltl Road. Bloomington-based developer StuartCo proposed adding a station to serve residents clustered there. (Staff photo: Bill Klotz)

Minnetonka wants to study extra LRT station

A developer’s pitch for an additional Southwest Light Rail Transit station near his multifamily complexes in Minnetonka is gaining ground.

Minnetonka, which on Monday night became the second city to sign off on plans for the 16-mile line, also stipulated it wants to further study an additional station south of Smetana Road at Feltl Road. The concept was originally pitched by Bloomington-based developer StuartCo, which owns the Greenfield Apartments, Raspberry Woods Townhomes and Deer Ridge Townhomes near the site.

The council passed, however, on another proposal by the owners of the Claremont Apartments to move the alignment from the wooded Opus Hill trail area to wetlands farther away from the apartment buildings.

Looking into the Smetana station is important to the City Council because of the input it received from residents and the area’s long-term needs, Council Member Tony Wagner said Tuesday.

Calling the Southwest line a “100-year project,” Wagner said the city wants to evaluate ridership and future density to see if the area could support a station in the future. He said the city does not intend to have a station there when the line opens in 2019.

“We’re not saying that we are adding a station. Just that we need to build a line in a way so that it is ready for some station in the future,” he said.

The City Council is cautiously approaching the extra station, which could cost an additional $13 million based on preliminary estimates from Jim Alexander, an engineer with the Metropolitan Council’s Southwest project office.

StuartCo has pushed for the station to serve some 6,000 residents in the area, though the Met Council estimates a station would attract only 110 daily riders.

At the meeting Monday, Council Member Brad Wiersum said he’d like to see some more evidence about ridership potential and future density near the station site before moving forward.

“When we’re talking about real money, we need something more than a nice idea,” Wiersum said.

StuartCo President Lisa Moe said Tuesday the company is pleased the City Council wants to study the station and that planners will take another look at ridership projections.

Moe questioned the ridership estimates in an interview last week. Between the housing in the area and the neighboring St. Therese Southwest senior assisted living facilities on Feltl Court, Moe said she thought ridership projections should be much higher.

“At the assisted living facility you have shifts of employees that are at the $10 to $18 wage,” she said. “You could get 110 riders off of that building alone, yet alone all of the people that live in that area.”

Moe said Tuesday the company will continue to campaign for the station to the Metropolitan Council. “We still have a long way to go we think,” she said.

In its resolution adopting the municipal consent plans, the city added a locally requested capital improvement to evaluate the design and potential cost of the station. Locally requested capital improvements are items outside the current project scope and budget that cities want completed as part of the project. Cities can choose to pay for the improvements up front to guarantee implementation or compete for contingency dollars later if they are available.

Though it’s not outlined in the preliminary design offered for municipal consent, the Southwest project office and city are working to replace the at-grade tracks crossing at Smetana Road with tracks that extend below Smetana and Feltl. Alexander said the below-grade alignment change would reduce the impacts to wetlands.

The change also could yield savings of $5 million to $7 million, which council members see as a way to pay for prepping the land for a potential station without impacting the overall project budget. Alexander told the City Council that the project office can’t guarantee savings would be used there.

The design change will be further developed during the next engineering phase for the project.

Given the potential savings from moving the alignment below Smetana Road, Wagner said it was “common sense” to at least study an additional station as a long-term investment.

“I think it’s worth something to be considered. It’s worth it for an area that has a decent amount of density for us,” Wagner said.

Minnetonka has one other station planned at the Opus Business Park and is coordinating planning with Hopkins for a station near Shady Oak Road and Excelsior Boulevard. Hopkins also showed support for further study of the Smetana station in its municipal consent approval last week. Wagner said Minnetonka sees the area between the two planned stations as one of two regions within the city poised for more density and development.

Minnetonka’s inclusion of the project sets the stage for further engineering analysis. Following the study, the city can decide, along with the Southwest project office, whether it will pursue the Smetana Road station and how it would be funded.

In its municipal consent plans, Minnetonka also requested two other capital improvements to evaluate the extension of 17th Avenue from Shady Oak Station south to K-Tel Drive and a 10-foot-wide trail between Smetana Road and K-Tel Drive.

Another proposal to adjust the alignment farther away from the Claremont Apartments on Smetana Road didn’t make it into the city’s municipal consent approval. Omaha-based Slosburg Co., which owns Richdale Management and the 330-unit Claremont complex, wanted the route moved in front of its five buildings so as to not obstruct trail views and add more distance. Under the current alignment, trains will pass as close as 89 feet.

The company previously told Finance & Commerce that it would consider legal options if the alignment wasn’t changed.

St. Louis Park, Eden Prairie and Minneapolis still have to sign off on the $1.673 billion to $1.683 billion project by July 14. Minneapolis, currently in mediated talks with the Metropolitan Council over the project, has still not held a public hearing on the preliminary design plans. Pending local approval and funding from the Federal Transit Administration, construction on the line would begin in 2016.